Oluseyi Odumade was arrested after he called for an ambulance
15:50, 05 Mar 2026
The case was heard at Leicester Crown Court(Image: Tom Mack/Leicester Mercury)
A De Montfort University (DMU) student carrying a machete suffered neck injuries after starting a fight with another armed man in Leicester city centre.
Oluseyi Odumade, who was a 19-year-old student in his first year at the time, left his accommodation at The Button Factory in Millstone Lane and walked a short distance before encountering two other men standing on a street corner.
Business and management student Odumade pulled out his weapon, and one of the others pulled out his own machete. The other man ran away.
The fight that followed was caught on CCTV, and members of the public could be seen fleeing the area after the battle began.
Odumade was slashed, suffering injuries to his neck and shoulder that led to him losing about a litre of blood.
He made it back to the Button Factory, where he called for an ambulance, and paramedics attended, accompanied by armed Leicestershire Police officers.
He spent three days in hospital and was charged with affray and possessing a blade in public. He later pleaded guilty to both charges.
The other man involved has never been identified.
At Leicester Crown Court on Thursday (March 5), Odumade was sentenced.
Prosecutor Priya Bakshi described what happened at 4pm on Saturday, December 6, as a “knife fight in Leicester city centre in the afternoon” in a “busy public area”.
Odumade, now 20, of Marchwood Close, Peckham, was represented in court by Daniel Mander, who said his client had been kicked out of university and was back on the London estate he grew up on.
He urged the judge to suspend the jail sentence due to Odumade’s difficult upbringing and the fact that he had sustained a serious injury.
He said: “He grew up on a rough estate in Peckham and was stabbed twice in London before coming to Leicester to go to university.
“I ask you to suspend the sentence because the defendant has already paid quite a heavy price – he was very seriously injured, and he got suspended from university and left his studies.”
He described the incident as “a flash in the pan” and “a very brief skirmish”.
But Recorder Robert Moretto sentenced Odumade to 12 months in youth custody. He told him: “You had all your life ahead of you.
“You made a decision to buy a machete, carry it with you and brandish it without any real provocation.
“You posed a very real risk of significant injury to a number of people.”